Egnatia wins the Cup of Albania for the first time, Tirana feels robbed again

Egnatia enters the history of Albanian football. The Rrogozhin club won the Albanian Cup trophy yesterday for the first time in its history. It happened in front of Tirana in the big final played at the Elbasan stadium. Egnatia won 1-0, after 120 minutes of exhausting play but without any quality level and with many controversies and many controversial episodes. In other words, Egnatia turns out to be the "Cinderella" of this season, after securing participation in the Conference League from the championship and now ending the season with a trophy. And Tirana leaves this edition empty-handed, where it lost both the championship title and the Albanian Cup trophy in the last minutes of the season. The only consolation for the white and blue is the second place in the championship, a position that enables it to participate in the Conference League.

match

In the "Elbasan Arena" stadium, both teams went down to the field with the desire to win their own cup, but the clash between them did not go so well, as there were episodes that greatly affected the course of the game and the result. It must be said that Tirana was very quickly left with 10 players on the field and this conditioned its performance as a result of the physical burden. Berisha was shown a red card in the 25th minute, a decision by referee Enea Jorgji that was not well received by the white and blue. Until that moment, Berisha was one of the most active on the field for Tirana. But the game continued and both teams created chances. However, after remaining with one less player, Tirana's momentum was somewhat restrained and the team started to play cautiously in both phases of the game. The first half ends in a 0-0 draw. The game and the result continued in the same way in the second half, when, thanks to the superiority of numbers, Egnatia started to "bite" the opponent's goal more. But none of the teams managed to finalize their actions, this and due to the fact that the respective groups lacked goal-scoring players. In the 78th minute, Kasa scores for Egnatia, but after consultation with VAR, it turns out that it was an irregular goal, as the player was in an offside position. In conclusion, the 90-minute regular time ends in a 0-0 draw.

The addition smiles at Egnatia

A 30-minute extra time had to be played to decide the winner, which produced excitement, even though the level of play as a whole dropped considerably. In the 113th minute comes the chance that decides the fate of the meeting. Referee Enea Jorgji signals from the penalty spot after an intervention by Hila against Paulauskas in the area. So there is a penalty for Egnatia and protests from the blue and white side. Jackson shoots the penalty, Lika waits, but then the player from Rogozhina pushes the ball into the net. In the last minutes, Egnatia delays the game and creates collisions, so Jackson received the second yellow card and came out with red. But there is no time for Tirana, as Egnatia wins 1-0 after 120 minutes of play at "Elbasan Arena" and wins the Cup of Albania for the first time. Tirana comes out of this season as a failure, even though a week ago it was competing for both trophies, both for the championship title and for the Cup of Albania, even quoted as a favorite. But the title was "stole" by Partizan in the last two laps of the race, while the Cup trophy was taken by Egnatia from Rrogozhina.